Please take a stand against cap on credit card fees

As a longtime rural small business owner in Seeley Lake, I know firsthand how important it is for our business to accept electronic payments from our customers. We appreciate that our customers are able to have secure and efficient transactions every time they visit our restaurant. By paying with either credit cards or debit cards, customers are able to carry their money around more easily, spend more money in our local community and have round-the-clock protection from fraud and theft.

I’m also appreciative of Senator Jon Tester and all the work he has done in protecting Montana’s rural communities. As potential legislation around electronic payment system fees come before Congress, I believe we can count on Senator Tester to fight for Montana’s small businesses. He has proven time and again to be a tireless advocate for local businesses, rural communities and small financial institutions that support Montana’s local economies.

A few years ago, Congress passed a law that puts a specific cap on the fees that banks and credit card companies can charge when you use your debit card. Unfortunately, this had a lot of bad unintended consequences. Small businesses that rely on small dollar transactions, like mine, ended up paying much, much more in fees. Meanwhile, the big box stores, like Amazon and Walmart, were able to capitalize on this change and make millions.

Now, those same big box stores want Congress to put the same cap on credit card transactions. This would do further damage to small banks, small businesses and consumers at a time when our local economies are already struggling. At our small business, we want to be able to accept debit and credit cards, but legislation like the debit card fee cap makes that significantly more difficult. If a credit card fee cap were to pass, many small businesses like ours may be forced to stop accepting card payments all together.

We’re asking Senator Tester to take the same stand he did when he pragmatically asked Congress to study the debit card fee cap before it was passed in 2011. We’ve seen firsthand how damaging this policy has been. Small and rural communities like ours simply cannot afford a cap on credit card fees. We are thankful that Senator Tester continues to stand up for small businesses like us. We are grateful for his constant work protecting rural America.